There’s nothing virtual about water on the Prairies this spring. With a few exceptions, water is plentiful in most places and too plentiful in many others. It’s actual, not virtual, water that concerns us at the moment.
Nevertheless, both types deserve consideration.
Virtual water is the amount used to produce goods. In Canada, many of those goods, particularly agricultural products like grain, oilseeds and meat, are exported. Virtual water exports are the result.
The Council of Canadians has raised alarm about virtual water exports, suggesting that water traded in the form of goods should be accounted for and potentially curtailed.
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“We’re not yet putting pipelines into water sources and shipping them out of the country, but we might as well be, because we are shipping massive amounts of water,” council chair Maude Barlow said in a recent speech.
“By far the biggest amount of water that you and I use every day is in the products that we eat and consume and use and the water that was used to make them. That is very seldom factored in when we’re thinking about water.”
Barlow is right about that. When we think of water use, irrigation and sewers and showers and taps are more likely to be top of mind. Trade doesn’t generally enter our calculations.
Canadian agriculture is dependent on trade. The country produces more food than it can use domestically and exports keep the agricultural economy churning. It’s no surprise that Canada is a net exporter of virtual water through its agricultural production, as well as other exports via forestry, mining and energy. The council estimates that net disappearance at 54.9 billion cubic metres. Of that, it says agriculture accounts for most of the deficit.
“Grains and oilseeds are the largest export commodities, accounting for one-third of the total value of agriculture and agri-food exports, followed by livestock and meat products,” stated the report.
The last two years notwithstanding, the Prairies cannot afford to be complacent about water conservation.
But nor can they drastically alter agricultural production and trade, and expect to maintain a well-functioning economy.
Most production, with the exception of irrigated southern Alberta, is reliant on rain as its primary water source. The natural water cycle feeds this process. Water is not lost but it constantly changes form, from vapour to liquid to solid, into and out of various agricultural products and related materials.
It surely can be stipulated that food production is a good use of a precious resource, whether that food is consumed by Canadians or by others who want it.
And the domestic spinoffs this production generates in terms of livelihoods, communities, economic development and commerce are vast and vital.
Is there a better use for water than that?
Reductions in agricultural trade, year over year, would wreak havoc on the economy, particularly on the Prairies. The Council of Canadians acknowledges that importance.
“While we are not calling for an end to all virtual water trade, a better understanding of how much water is lost … and the stress that is placed on watersheds used for export production, will hopefully lead to better water management policies,” it said in a recent report calledLeaky Exports: A Portrait of the Virtual Water Trade in Canada.
Assessment would likely promote more careful use of water and ensure political decisions are made with water in mind. That is important to our present and our future.
But the agricultural basis in trade must also be acknowledged for its vital importance to the country’s economic engine, which now lies mainly on the Prairies.
We must acknowledge that trade affects water and water affects trade. The country’s future depends on both.
Bruce Dyck, Terry Fries, Barb Glen and D’Arce McMillan collaborate in the writing of Western Producer editorials.
